Well that was a whirlwind! How did we get to the 27th so quickly? I know… kids, end of year and all that good stuff. Well, I’m here, just swamped. I’ve finally been working on some REALLY tedious stuff for my book (figuring out what I want the photos to look like, setting them up, taking a snapshot for guidance to AQS when they do their photo-shoot, re-naming and re-sizing all the blasted photos, etc…. who knew you had to do all that stuff too when writing a book? I sure didn’t…. erg. ….). So that means my “free” time has been spent on the book. Plus it was the end of the year, so herewith some family photos! Next post I’ll share my new placemats (yes, it involves cloth and paint), and then Joshua’s graduation pix!

On the Thursday before school let out (a week ago I think it was), Eli’s fourth grade class had a “Poet’s Corner” for lunch and parents were invited. Each child had made an album with mod-podged/ gel-mediumed torn art papers on a base paper, and their spring term’s poems were printed (kids got to choose the font etc. as well as write the poems).

Eli’s writing was amazing…he and a couple of the other kids really excelled. One poem was so good I promptly asked his permission to use it on one of my Journal quilts for this year! WOOT! My very first journal quilt was based on Joshua’s artwork, so this is now Eli’s turn… I’ll share the poem when I make it and IF the journal gets in to Houston, will share pics in November….. first gotta make it though! Anyway, the picture above is Eli reading. And here is the other of the two poems he read aloud… I totally LOVE it!

Mouse 2 (because it’s the second Mouse poem–please ignore the dots, couldn’t figure out formatting or the accent over the “e” on flambe)

• Mouse in crumbs
• Happy as thee
• Being flourished by food day and night
• Mouse you better run for the cat has come
• not to play but to have mouse flambe
• You escape with your life Mouse in crumbs
• Happy as thee can be.

Then that evening was the 8th grade formal dance. Joshua went with friends Vinnie and Kyle, who came by to collect him (Vinnie’s mom drove them, and I picked him up at 10….). First, Joshua before the other guys arrived:

Then, I LOVE this one with the little brother in the background!

How can I have a kid old enough to shave?

After visiting Natasha Kemper-Cullen‘s studio (see earlier post), Kate, Kathy, Hannah and daughter Nina and I headed to a beach on Orr’s Island (at least I think that’s where we were…..). We drove down route 24 through Harpswell until we reached here:

Kate had brought some cloths to spread on the damp sand, and we munched away:

For once, I remembered to do a stand-in for Deborah (our dear friend in exile in the wilds of the Dallas metropolis) who always used to remember to take photos of our lunches. We each brought something to share… we had initially planned to meet at Hannah’s house where she was going to fix a salad, but we changed our plans to picnic, so she treated us to lunch-on-the-run from the local grocery. Here’s what I picked:

Now wouldn’t that make a glorious quilt?

After eating, we trolled the beach for beach glass and pottery shards.  I did OK finding the glass, but didn’t really know what I was looking for with the pottery…. but Hannah gave me her findings, saying she had MORE than enough at home…so here is my “booty”, displayed on a piece of fabric I  monoprinted (with dye) and overdyed last fall in Carol Soderlund’s workshop (pop Soderlund into the search box on the upper left sidebar if you want to check out those blogposts)… anyway, the fabric seemed perfect….

On the way home I actually had time to dawdle on the way, so thinking of Deborah I stopped in at Smitten in downtown (!) Wiscasset. Deborah just LOVED this store and the sign. I have to admit…Wiscasset really is a beautiful little town:

The for-the-oh-so-chic home items in this store are lovely and expensive, so I enjoy the visual treat. Then I moved up the street a few doors to Rock Paper Scissors, which is a great name for a store also, and not so coincidentally, owned by the same someone (I think).
I love the stuff in this store…the paper, the pens, the ribbon….. but they SERIOUSLY need to work on customer etiquette. When I walked in the clerk was on the phone. I browsed. She got off the phone, but didn’t say a thing. I browsed some more, and spent some serious time considering some ribbons. She never said hello or may I help you find something, not a thing. I browsed more, headed toward the door. I left. She never ONCE said hello, good-bye, thank you, let me know if can I help you, NOTHING. So as much as I love the contents of the store, I’m getting over it. I’ve been in there a few times, and every time it is the same. Not a way to win repeat customers!

Then I drove home to kids, family, work and all that stuff that makes life worthwhile.

Sheesh….. the week has evaporated yet again! This week started with a glorious Frayed Edges (my mini-group) day, so I’m going to break it into two posts. Then I got swamped when I realized entries for Houston (IQA) are due June 12th, and my quilt isn’t done let alone photographed and forms completed, so I’ve been quilting like a madwoman all week. I finished the quilt (well, except for the hanging sleeve and label, and they don’t have to be done to photo the front) last night, and will put entry in the mail on Monday. In the meantime… I get to share the wonderful day we had on Monday…

Hannah Beattie, the youngest of us, now lives in Harpswell, which is south of Brunswick, Maine, on a peninsula that has to be one of the most beautiful in Maine, and that is saying a LOT. I believe that Hannah must know and be friends with every amazing artist between New Hampshire and the mid-coast…see she’s one of those people that everyone love! So anyway, over the weekend Hannah writes to ask, would we like to go visit Natasha at her home and studio? Heck YES! As you can see f rom the photo above, when you drive up to the house you know you are in for a major treat… I mean, don’t you want shutters like these? I do! And in the vegetable patch to the left of the drive, look at these awesome garden people (which Natasha makes on commission, too)–that’s Kathy, Hannah and (in her arms) Nina:

For those of you who have come to art quilting lately, Natasha was one of the trail blazers, and has been at the forefront of the art quilt movement for longer than she probably wants to remember (and it also means she started young!). Here’s her website…I encourage you to go look and enjoy (and shop?). Anyway, there was plenty of color and creativity in her home… both in her studio and in the other rooms. Here’s Natasha with one of her works in progress…she began with white cloth, used lots of Shiva paintsticks and more:

and her studio (PS…please don’t blame me for the studio lust you’ll feel)

Repetition was a theme which I enjoyed… her yarn baskets:

Pencils and pens:

The pillows for sale on one table: (Kathy bought one!)

The broken-ceramics tiling she did on the woodstove chimney in the living room:

and close up:

Then there is the jewelry for sale (does natasha ever sleep????):

And tho it isn’t repetition in the same way, I LUST after this bathroom mirror:

OK..I also lust for color, and the time to create….

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Doesn’t that piece just make you want to RUN to the studio and play?

And finally, on the way out….

Next post (or maybe the one after), what we did with the rest of our day….

Sometimes when you do a “chore” it becomes a pleasure. I love taking ‘Widgeon for walkies… like this photo I shared not too long ago, you can find inspiration anywhere:

When we reached the end of Sweetbriar (a nearby short road), I saw a flit of black and red… a pileated woodpecker! AND I happened to have my camera with me, and he alit on a tree for long enough to get this shot:

And then we turned the corner and the sunlight was glinting off the stone wall in the Fagan’s back yard:

Walkies are fun!

Just a short digression from the Paducah news…. SPRING HAS ARRIVED in Maine! Here’s proof: photos taken while walking the pug-wonderfulness (a.k.a. ‘Widgeon)….

First, the quintessential sign of spring in Maine, the fiddlehead fern. Don’t they look like a family, turned to each other for hugs?

Then, the beginnings of iris (I think that’s what they are) at a neighbor’s house. Wouldn’t that make a great abstract background for a quilt?

Rushing water:

And, at LAST, green on the trees! In two weeks, we should be about halfway leafed out!

Daffodils in the sun…. a couple years ago, our neighbor Dave did a major landscaping which I have dubbed the “neighborhood beautification project” since so many of us can see and enjoy results of his major expense. Then the yellow house where the road splits put in a HUGE load of small boulders as retaining wall so she could plant on the tiers… this is one of the treats (the coral bells are on their way out of the ground….)

And up the road a piece, more of the wild fiddleheads, these a bit more unfurled

–a couple days ago I saw an old guy on the side of the road…looked like he was picking fiddleheads which are often used in salads or sauteed….haven’t tried that yet… I like looking at them too much!